Assessing Students in the

21st Century

Presented by
Jan Stanley, State Title I Director
Karen Davies, Title I Coordinator
Framework for the 21st Century Skills
Common Language?
 What is a balanced
assessment system?

Assessment OF Learning
Assessment FOR Learning
A Balanced Assessment System

• Summative Assessments

• Benchmark Assessments

• Formative Assessments OF Learning

• Formative Assessments/Classroom
Assessments FOR Learning
 A Balanced Assessment System

• Ensures that all instructional decisions are

based on data

• Meets the informational needs of following

groups:
– State
– District
– School
– Classroom (teachers and students)
– Parents
 State Summative and
Local Benchmark Assessments

• Who are the primary users?

• What are the typical uses?
• What is being assessed?
• What methods are being used?
• When do we assess?
Assessment User Assessment FOR Assessment OF Learning
Learning
State Department of Which districts/schools are
Education making adequate yearly
Community progress?
Are the students acquiring
skills to prepare them for the
21st century?
Superintendent Are our chosen strategies to
improve achievement
District
producing results?
Administrators
How shall we allocate district
resources to achieve success?
Principal How shall we allocate our
resources to achieve success?
Is classroom instruction
producing results?
 Assessment OF Learning
• Administered after learning has
occurred
• Utilized to communicate statements of
student learning status to those outside
the classroom
• Used to gather evidence for a student's
report card grade – final exams and
projects
• Administered to demonstrate
accountability
 Formative Assessment

A Process During Learning

• Who are the primary users?

• What are the typical uses?
• What is being assessed?
• What methods are being used?
• When do we assess?
Assessment Assessment FOR Assessment OF
User Learning Learning
Student Am I improving? How am I achieving in
Where do I need help? relation to my peers?

Teacher What intervention does this What grade has this student
student need? earned?
Is instruction paced at the Is this student achieving on
correct rate? grade level?
What are this student’s
strengths?

Parents What can I do at home to How does my child compare

support learning?
Is my child learning new
things?
to others in the
school/district/state?
How does this school
compare to others in the
district/state?
Classroom Assessment FOR Learning

What is the difference between

formative assessments and
formative classroom
assessments for learning?
 Formative /Classroom
Assessments For Learning
• Occur during learning
• Encourage student motivation and learning

These assessments:
• Are not high-stakes
• Are not used for accountability
• Are not used for report card grades

“If everything is for a grade, there’s never time to

practice – get better.” -Rick Stiggins
What is the Student Involvement Component?

Classroom Assessment For Learning

• Acknowledges the critical importance of

students and teachers working as a team

• Ensures instructional decisions are made by

students and teachers

• Provides continuous descriptive rather than

evaluative feedback
 Feedback

Research indicates feedback

that focuses on leaning targets
leads to greater academic gains
than feedback that emphasizes
self esteem.
 Learning Targets
Questions students should ask teachers

• If I have not mastered an objective

(summative/benchmark), how will I improve if I
don’t know which specific learning targets are
keeping me from mastery?

– What knowledge do I need to demonstrate the

intended learning?
– What patterns of reasoning do I need to master?
– What skills are required, if any?
– What product development capabilities must I
acquire?
 Activity

Descriptive or Evaluative
Feedback?
Descriptive VS Evaluative Feedback
Descriptive Evaluative
• Describes features of • Assigns a label to
work or quality achievement
• Relates to learning • Expresses a judgment
targets or standards • Expresses disapproval
of quality • Identifies weaknesses
• Identifies strengths • Assigned to all work,
• Provides specific even if it is for practice
information on how to
improve
 When consistently carried out as a matter
of routine within and across
classrooms, evaluative feedback has
been linked to profound gains in student
achievement, especially for low
achievers.

Benjamin Bloom, "The Search for Methods of Group Instruction as Effective as One-
on-One Tutoring," Educational Leadership, May 1984
Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam, "Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through
Classroom Assessment," Phi Delta Kappan, October 1998
Teacher Responsibilities

Monitoring Student Progress

What is the expectation for a change
in responsibilities for
Title I and special education
teachers?
 Teacher Accountability

Improving Results for Students in High

Need Populations

A Strategic Plan

Recommendation #2
 Establish the Expectation

Recommendation #2
Establish a management system, within a tiered
instruction and intervention model, that empowers
special education and Title I teachers to assume
leadership and responsibility in documenting
progress and coordinating instructional
interventions for individual identified students to
ensure improved results for each student in reading
and mathematics on an annual basis.

Source – Page 5 of the Executive Summary of the Strategic Plan for Improving Results for
Students in High Need Populations
 Change in the Focus of Services

Special Education Title I Teachers

Teachers

Accommodations and
Modifications for Learning Remediation of Skills

Intervention Strategies Intervention Strategies

 Teacher Responsibilities for
Student Accountability
• Participate in completing a comprehensive analysis
of assessment data
• Generate a list of students by grade level who are not
achieving mastery
• Graph or chart longitudinal assessment data for “at
risk students”
• Participate in instructional intervention teams and the
development of student intervention plans
• Provide academic interventions and conduct
progress monitoring
What are the teacher
responsibilities for
measuring student
progress?
 Assessment – Now What?
• Summative and benchmark
assessment results have been
reviewed and targeted (non proficient)
students have been identified

What now?

Instructional
Intervention Team
 Instructional Intervention Team

• What is the purpose of the team?

• Who are the members?

• What are the team responsibilities?

 Purpose of the Team
The team is responsible for gathering
student information concerning current
performance, skill deficiencies, developing
an intervention plan and using collected
progress monitoring data to make
adjustments to intervention plan.

THIS IS NOT A STUDENT ASSISTANCE TEAM.

 Intervention Team Membership
Team membership may include 2 or more of these
suggested professionals:
• Principal/designee
• Title I teacher
• Special education teacher
• Technology Integration Specialist (TIS)
• Speech and language specialist
• General education teacher
• One or more of the following individuals dependent upon student
needs – counselor, nurse, social worker, school psychologist
• Other as determined by district and/or school administrators
Team Member Responsibilities
• Define the deficiency using
baseline data
• Develop an individual instructional
intervention plan of action
• Implement the intervention plan
• Evaluate plotted data to adjust
interventions
 Baseline Data

Data Sources
• Summative Individual Right Response Record
• Benchmark tests
• Formative assessments

Identification of specific student academic weakness

Deficient Skills Have Been Identified

Evaluate Develop an
and Intervention
Adjust Plan
Interventions

Implement
Plan
 The Intervention Plan should
include the following information:

• Description of specific intervention

• Duration of the intervention
• Schedule and setting of the intervention
• Persons responsible for implementing the intervention
• Identify measurable outcomes–goals/objectives
• Identification of measurement instrument and
documenting techniques
• Progress monitoring schedule
Plan has been Developed

Evaluate Develop an
and Intervention
Adjust Plan
Interventions

Implement
Plan
 Implement the Intervention Plan
• Intervention strategies are delivered
through Tier 2 or Tier 3 instruction.

MONITOR PROGRESS
 Progress Monitoring

• What is it?

• Why do we do it?

• What is the purpose?

What is Progress Monitoring?

Progress monitoring involves

continuous data collection on
skills that are important for the
student’s success.
 Why Use Progress Monitoring?

Progress Monitoring

Use the data to

To collect direct and Use that data to
establish
frequent measures make instructional
instructional
of student progress. change decisions.
goals.
 What is the Purpose?

Student Success !
Plan has been Implemented

Evaluate Develop an
and Intervention
Adjust Plan
Interventions

Implement
Plan
Evaluate and Adjust Interventions

The team reconvenes to assess student

progress and make adjustments to the
instructional intervention plan.

DATA COLLECTED
Instructional Intervention Plan
has been Adjusted

Evaluate
And
Adjust Implement Plan
Intervention
Plan

Progress Monitor
 Concluding Thoughts

Research has shown that consistently

applying principles of assessment FOR
learning has yielded unprecedented
gains in student achievement.
 Concluding Thoughts

Students must be taught the skills they need

to be in control of their own academic
success:
– self assessment;
– goal setting;
– reflection on personal work;
– recording the results of progress; and
– understanding and sharing the results of
their progress.
 Suggested Resources

• Assessment FOR Learning – An Action

Guide for School Leaders
S. Chappuis, R. Stiggins, J. Arter, and J. Chappuis
• Classroom Assessment for Student Learning
–Doing It Right-Using It Well
R. Stiggins, J. Arter, J. Chappuis, and S. Chappuis

Publisher: Educational Testing Service - 2006